


In The House of The Past

by shattered_seas



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/F, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Reincarnation, Stripes blue and toothpaste are ocs too, Swearing, The Jacobs being siblings, but they’re just in cause I didn’t want to use anyone else, i mean theyre all ghosts so they have to had died at some point, shes only in it for a chapter though, student council president spot, yes knuckles is an oc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26880121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shattered_seas/pseuds/shattered_seas
Summary: David Jacobs thought nothing could change his view of the world.  Growing up in the 21st century, he knew how important it was to stick with your beliefs.  However, when he leaves his small town to move to Manhattan, how many things will he question?  Certainly only things you'd normally question.  Absolutely nothing related to, let's say, ghosts.
Relationships: David Jacobs & Knuckles (Newsies), David Jacobs & Les Jacobs, David Jacobs & Les Jacobs & Sarah Jacobs, David Jacobs & Original Female Character(s), David Jacobs & Sarah Jacobs, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Les Jacobs & Sarah Jacobs, Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer
Comments: 13
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

David sighed, folding the last of his clothes and placing them in his suitcase, knowing this would be the last time he would ever be in his home. He looked around his room, making sure he memorized every crack in the wall and every dent in the floor.

"Hey, Asshole," came a voice from the window. He looked up to see the familiar frame of his friend.

"Hey, Knuckles," he sighed.

Knuckles swung in the window, her long brown hair flowing behind her, and flopped on David's bed. "You excited about the move?"

David raised an eyebrow, "super excited. I think this is going to be the best thing that's ever happened to me."

She smirked, "yeah, and soon enough you'll forget about everything that's happened in this place. Every school day, every teacher, every time we tried to get Sarah to ask out Katherine, every person..."

"I wasn't the one that tried to get Sarah to ask her out!" David defended, "and besides, they're dating now anyway."

"And they never would have without my help," Knuckles grinned, then realizing something, she frowned. "How do you think they're gonna keep talking to each other?"

David furrowed his brows, thinking "I think Sarah said they were going to try long distance. She seemed pretty optimistic so I think it'll be fine."

"Oh they better stay together, I spent enough time listening to Katherine rant about those 'beautiful brown eyes' and 'perfect hair.'"

David smiled slightly, his attention being turned back to packing. "Do you think we'll stay in touch?" He asked quietly.

The girl turned to face him. "Yeah, of course. You're my best friend, Mouth. There's no way in hell you can get out of that by just moving across the country."

"It's just to New York," he said.

"Yeah! Do you know how far New York is from Santa Fe? The distance is huge! It may not be on the other end of the country but it's pretty fucking far away." She glanced down at David, noticing his frown deepened, "but that doesn't mean it's far enough away for me to stop talking to you. You could move to another planet and I'd figure out a way for you to get cell service."

"There's no way that I could get cell service on Mars," he said, continuing to pack. The shirts were folded neatly in the bottom of the suitcase, as he started to place the folded pants on top of them.

"I bet I could figure it out."

"You have a D- in science. And that's with me helping you."

"I'll make Katherine help me. She has an A and she'd definitely want a way to contact your sister."

"Have I been mentioned?" Came a voice from the doorway.

"Sarah!" Knuckles jumped off the bed and hugged her friend. "I'd just like to say good luck controlling your brother without me here and to have fun in Brooklyn!"

"Manhattan," David corrected her.

"Potato, tomato," the girl mumbled under her breath. David rolled his eyes, knowing not to question her weirdness.

"So, what are you gonna do when we're gone?" Sarah asked.

"Well, my first order of business is to convince your girlfriend to help me figure out a way to let people get cell service in Mars."

"I'm not even going to ask."

"Then, I'm gonna try to make some new friends, as I've only been talking to you, Mouth, and Katherine for the past seven years and Katherine has her own friends. After that, I don't know. I'll try to graduate high school without Mouth helping me."

"That sounds pretty hard," Sarah said.

"Shut it, Jacobs" Knuckles threw a pillow at the laughing girl, "you still get him to help you in English."

"I'm right here, you know," David interjected.

"Yeah," Knuckles laughed, "we know. We just don't care." She looked over at what David was holding in his hands. "Oh my god is that Mr. Snakey?" The brunette ran over and snatched the green and purple felt snake from her friend's hands. "You told me you got rid of him years ago!"

"I thought I did! I don't know why it's here."

"I think he might be immortal, he'll keep coming back to haunt you until your dying days," Knuckles smirked.

"Or he could have just, not wanted to die so he hid in the corner," Sarah suggested.

"I saved him," Les piped up, moving into the room.

"Hey, kiddo," Knuckles greeted the youngest Jacobs, ruffling his hair.

"Hi Knuckles," he turned to David, "Mama wants you downstairs."

"Is David in trouble?" Sarah asked, smiling.

"No, she just wanted help moving something," Les explained.

"I can help," Knuckles offered, "Mouth's still packing anyway, it'd take less time if I helped."

"Okay!" Les grabbed the teenager's hand and dragged her down the stairs where his mother was waiting.

"You need help?" David nodded, wordlessly and his sister came over to help remove any trace of him living in this room.

\-------------------------

"You ready?" The family of five stood in front of their house with Katherine and Knuckles, saying goodbye.

David nodded, "yeah, I'm ready." He walked over to his best friend and hugged her, knowing this would be the last time he saw her for what could be forever.

"Woah there Mouth, if you keep hugging me people are gonna think that we're straight. And we can't have that." He let out a watery laugh.

"I'll miss you," he whispered, slightly audible over the sound of everything else.

"I'll miss you too," she said, "and it's not like we ain't ever gonna see each other again, we can still facetime and text. Now, if we lived a hundred years ago, that'd be a real problem."

David went over and hugged Katherine, saying goodbye. They had never been close, but leaving forever changes some things. "Good luck," she whispered.

"You too."

The trunk door slammed shut, everything was packed. "If we don't leave now we're going to be late," Mayer said.

"Bye Knuckles."

"Bye Mouth."

"Make sure not to do anything stupid until I'm here too, okay?"

"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you."

With a final MARVEL quote, the Jacobs' got into the car. As they drove off, they entered a new stage of their lives, and left an entirely different one behind. Not one of them, even David, knew what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Knuckles is an OC. She's only going to appear in this chapter so you don't really need to know anything about her.
> 
> This is my first fic of ao3 so I'd love if you left a review and told me what you think!!
> 
> -Claire


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This house is not haunted. Definitely not, it's just not possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's broken glass in this chapter. No one gets hurt, but just a warning.

"Here it is," Mayer announced, parking the dark blue truck in the driveway.

David looked up from his book, observing the house. It was old, clearly. There were patches of dark brown paint peeling off the side of the house. It had three stories and the top one looked like it could tip over from a bad windstorm. There was a faded sign above the door, reading "New y odg u e"

"Papa, what's the sign on the door say?" David asked.

"Well, I heard that this place used to be a lodging house to a group of newsboys so I assume that it's saying that." David nodded, taking in the information. He glanced up at the window and felt his blood run cold, seeing a face peering back at him. He blinked, and the face was gone, almost like it had never existed. He shrugged, picking up his bag, knowing that nothing could have been there. It was simply not possible.

The family walked up to the front door and Mayer pulled out a key from his pocket. He unlocked the door and twisted the knob, not quite opening it but enough so that you could see inside. "The movers will be here in a couple of hours. David, Les, Sarah your room is almost the entirety of the first floor so there shouldn't be any problems about space. Go claim your spots while we wait for the movers to get here." The door was opened and Les dashed into the house, eager to chose his spot first. Sarah followed soon after, and David trudged after them, knowing any spot would be fine. 

"I call this bed!" Les leaped on top of a bed in the far corner of the room, sprawling over it. Sarah chose a bed next to the door, leaving David with the bed right next to the window, leading to an old fire escape.

He sat down on the bed he was left with and looked out the window. The view wasn't much, just the rusty old fire escape that most likely hadn't been used in years. If he squinted, David could see a faint etching of letters, faded by time.

"Look!" Les exclaimed, the nine-year-old pointed at a carving in the wall, letters that made a word. "It says 'Racetrack'" he said.

"Why would someone write racetrack on a wall?" Sarah asked, "that's kind of stupid."

"Maybe they just liked racetracks?" David suggested, feeling somehow that he knew something more about this than he thought he did. A crash behind them caused the siblings to turn around and stare at what now covered the floor. "There was a lamp here?" David examined the broken glass of the lamp that had previously stood.

"Apparently so," Sarah said, "we should probably clean it up though." The twins went to find a broom as they confined Les to his bed, not wanting him to step on the glass.

David walked through the floor looking for the closet. The interior of the house seemed old, and seemed like no one had been there in years. It looked somewhat of a place that you would see in a horror movie. "Ow!" David lifted his foot up, "I stubbed my toe!" He looked down at the loose plank he had stubbed his toe on, seeing a piece of paper underneath it. "Huh," he lifted up the plank to see dozens of sheets of paper there. David pulled them out of the floor board and started looking through them. Almost all of them seemed to be of the same person, a person that seemed strangely familiar. He studied it for a couple of seconds before a realization hit him. "Shit," he muttered to himself, "they're all drawings of me."

"I found it!" He heard the yell of his sister and his head snapped up. David quickly stuffed the drawings back under the floor board and ran back towards the room. 

The pair quickly picked up the glass shards from the floor. "Okay, you're free to leave your bed now, Les." The boy jumped up and ran over to the window, with a questioning glance towards the fire escape.

"Yeah, sure." Sarah opened the window and the trio climbed out onto the fire escape looking at the city below, and ready for their new life.

"The moving van's here!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this! Sorry it was so short.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New School? Check   
> New Friends? Check  
> Haunted House? Check

“So, how’s the house?” Knuckles face was illuminated on the phone screen, smiling at the sight of her friend.

“It’s fine,” David said, shrugging.

“That’s it? No ‘oh! It’s great!’ or ‘here let me show you around!’ or ‘I saw twenty ghosts today!’”

“Not everything is a horror movie, Kowalski,” he muttered.

“Oh, something scared you,” the girl smirked.

“Nothing scared me!” Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

“You look up when you’re lying,” she told him, “so, what is it?”

“I saw some drawings under a floorboard today,” he started.

“Okay.”

“And all the drawings seemed to be of the same boy. And the boy looked really familiar. After I looked at them more closely I realized the boy was identical to me.”

“Maybe you had a doppelgänger in the, when was this house last in use? The 1900’s? Maybe you had a doppelgänger in the 1900’s. It ain’t anything to worry about, just a coincidence,” she said.

“I guess you’re right. It’s just something doesn’t seem right about this place, I don’t believe in ghosts, but if I did, I’d say this place is haunted,” David said.

“I mean it makes sense,” Knuckles considered, “I mean, think about it. Old place that houses poor newsboys. Poor newsboys get sick during winter. Poor boys have no medicine. Boys die. Boys mad they didn’t get to live a full life due to capitalism and decide to haunt the world of the living. It’s what I would do if capitalism helped kill me.”

“You seem to have thought this though.”

“I have.”

“David who are you talking to?” Les came bounding into the room.

“Knuckles.”

“Knuckles!” Les exclaimed.

“Hey kiddo,” Knuckles greeted the younger child, “how’s the house?”

“It’s great! It’s huge! There’s so many places that we can hide for when we play hide and seek! I think I’ve found most of them but I don’t think anyone else can fit into a lot of them. There’s a huge window next to David’s bed that leads to a fire escape outside and it has a really good view of the city. Do you want to see?” The kid rambled.

“If your brother says it’s okay,” David chuckled, Knuckles is still making him make all the decisions about Les. Even hindered of miles away, nothing’s changed.

“Can we?” Les looked at David with his infamous puppy eyes that could cause anyone to break, no one was immune.

“Sure,” David gave in after a few seconds, knowing it would be useless to say no. He picked the phone up off of the bed and opened the window, carrying the phone with him outside onto the fire escape, Les following soon after. “Here it is,” David moved the camera around, giving his friend a clear view of the city.

“Woah, the city’s real cool,” Knuckles commented.

“You should come live here with us!” Les suggested, eyes filled with glee.

“Nah, kid. I can’t leave my aunt down in Santa Fe by herself. And she would never agree to come here with me. I’ll just have to visit a lot,” Knuckles said.

“Can you some visit soon?” Les asked.

“Maybe in the summer, kiddo. I still have school, you know. And you do too.”

“And speaking of school,” David cut in, “we have it tomorrow. So, Les, time to go to sleep.”

The nine-year-old groaned, “it’s only 10:00.”

“Do you know what time I went to sleep at when I was your age?” David asked, “7:30. Be happy you’re allowed to stay up past eight.”

“Okay,” Les crawled though the window, giving David a strange sense of deja vu, and got ready to go to sleep.

“Damn,” Knuckles let out a low whistle, “I had no idea you could control him.”

“I can’t, normally,” he said, “I’m just lucky this time.”

“Yeah, sure.” The two laughed and talked for an hour, sharing stories of their time together in Santa Fe and how they’re doing without each other.

David checked his watch. “Oh, I better go. I have school tomorrow.”

“Shit, you do. Well good luck,” Knuckles said, “don’t die, don’t join a gang, and don’t replace me, okay?” 

“I would never replace you.”

“Okay, bye Mouth.”

“Bye Knuckles.” David’s finger hovered over the red button before pressing it, ending the call. His best friend’s smiling face stared back at him, and he climbed inside.

—————

“Sarah, if we don’t leave now we’re going to be late,” David shouted.

“I’m coming!” His twin shouted from the other side of the house. Sarah came bounding down the stairs like an energetic ball of gas that would explode any minute. “Okay, do we have Les?” David nodded towards their brother, standing next to him. “Let’s go!” Sarah exclaimed as the trio made their way out the door.

“Bye Mom! Bye Dad!” Les yelled behind them. The door slammed shit behind him, and they began their long walk towards school.

“What do you think it’s gonna be like?” Sarah asked, kicking a pebble, “do you think it’s gonna be like school back in Santa Fe? Or do you think it’s gonna be like Mean Girls?”

“It’s not going to be like Mean Girls,” David told her, “it’s just school.”

“You gotta try to make friends today, okay?” Sarah said.

“I’m here to learn, not to make friends,” David said.

“I know. But having a friend is never a bad thing,” she said.

The two approached the high school having dropped off Les at The elementary school minutes prior. “That’s huge,” Sarah whispered.

“Much bigger than Santa Fe.”

The twins walked to the office where they were greeted by a lady sitting at the front desk. “Hi! I’m Ms. Larkin, how can I help you today?”

“I’m Sarah Jacobs, and this is David Jacobs. We’re new here,” Sarah introduced them.

“Oh, of course!” Ms. Larkin handed each of them a schedule. “You both have the same schedule, but I gave you each a different copy so you can have your own. I’ll get someone to show you around.” She picked up a telephone and muttered something that David couldn’t hear into it. “Yes, thank you.” Ms. Larkin hung up the phone. “Your tour guide, Sean will be here in a minute. He’s student council president and in charge of welcoming all new students and making them feel welcome.”

David and Sarah nodded, waiting for their tour guide to arrive. A boy about their age, dark brown hair, and about 5’ 2” walked in. “Hi, I’m Sean Conlon,” he stuck his hand out to shake, “I’m student council president and I’ll be showing you two around today.”

“Great!” Sarah grinned, shaking his hand, “I’m Sarah, and this is my brother David. We just moved here from Santa Fe.”

Sean raised an eyebrow, “New Mexico? Cool. So if you follow me I can show you to your first class.”

————

“Where do we sit?” Sarah asked, her brother, standing next to him.

David shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“Watch this be exactly like Mean Girls,” she told him.

“Hey, Jacobs!” The two looked over to see Sean, their tour guide, “you can sit here if you want to.”

David smiled, grateful, and the two walked over to Sean’s table and sat down.

“So, as you know I’m Sean. I go by Spot though. Next to me is Hotshot,” a boy looked up and nodded in greeting, “That’s Toothpaste,” a boy waved, “over there is Blue,” the girl next to Toothpaste offered him a small smile, “and that’s Stripes,” another girl next to Blue waved at them.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Sarah, and that’s-“

“-David. I’m David.”

“And we just moved here from Santa Fe, New Mexico.”

Blue let out a laugh from the end of the table. “You ever meet anyone named Knuckles?” She asked.

“She’s my best friend,” David said.

“You’re Mouth?” She asked. David simply nodded in response. “So you moved into that creepy house on Duane Street?”

Hotshot looked up from his phone, “that was you? My family was wondering who was insane enough to buy that house.”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked, “it’s a great house.”

“Some people think it’s haunted,” Spot said, “I think it’s a bunch of bullshit though. I spent a night there on a dare. If it was haunted, I would know.”

“Some people hear screaming over there,” Hotshot told them, “and when they go to look, they’re isn’t anybody there. Some people have even reported seeing full bodied apparitions.”

“Can you dumb that down for us?” Stripes asked.

“Some people reported seeing ghosts.”

“Great! We live in a haunted house!”

“Ghosts aren’t real, Saz.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates on the same day? Woah. 
> 
> I promise there will be ghosts soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The lamp fell over yesterday when we first got here, right?”
> 
> “Yeah,” David nodded, “but things fall all the time. It’s gravity.”
> 
> “But do you remember what we were talking about right before it fell?”

“We’re home!” Les stomped into the house, slamming the door open. He hung his coat on the recently hung coat rack and ran to his room, his backpack in hand.   
Sarah and David walked in after him, conversing quietly.

“Do you seriously think this place might be haunted?” Sarah asked quietly.

“No. Ghosts aren’t real. And you heard Spot, he spent a night here and didn’t see anything,” David reasoned.

“Maybe they were scared,” Sarah suggested, “or maybe he did see something but just didn’t tell anyone.”

“Why would he not tell anyone?”

“Well he’s student council president, right?” Sarah said, “if he all of a sudden started talking about how ghosts are real, I don’t think he would stay president for long.”

“That’s unlikely. He probably just saw nothing,” David said.

“Maybe he didn’t see anything,” Sarah said, “but we did.”

“What do you mean?”

“The lamp fell over yesterday when we first got here, right?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah,” David nodded, “but things fall all the time. It’s gravity.”

“But do you remember what we were talking about right before it fell?”

“No.”

“Les saw a carving on the wall that read ‘racetrack’. I then said it’s stupid that someone would write racetrack on a wall. Then the lamp fell.”

“That’s just gravity,” David told her.

“But I did some researching about the newsies last night, you know, the people that used to live here. A bunch of the newsies went by weird nicknames. And in the list of residents there was someone named Racetrack Higgins,” she smirked.

“Okay, say that most records at the time weren’t horrible at best. If I was a ghost, and I’m not, I wouldn’t haunt some place that I stayed at as a kid.”

“He died here. Fever.” Sarah said.

“Oh. But that doesn’t mean he would haunt the place,” David said.

“I disagree.”

“Have fun being wrong,” David walked up the stairs towards their shared room to do his homework.

David glared down at his homework page, the wind rustling around him. He was seated on the fire escape outside the window, as it was quieter than the chaos inside. “What is this problem?” He groaned to himself, ready to erase the math problem he was working on and start it again.

“You forgot to carry the one,” came a boy’s voice from behind him. David turned around, looking to see who said that, not recognizing the voice. To his surprise, no one was there. He raised an eyebrow, and turned back to the page, seeing if he had imagined it. David looked at where the voice had told him he messed up, and fixed it. The voice was right. “Must have been my concise.” The boy quickly finished his homework and stood up, ready to go back inside.

He turned around, sensing a part of him towards the view of New York. David stepped up to the railing and placed his hands on it, as if he were watching the waves from a boat. He watched the hustle and bustle of city life, taking it in. “Why does this seem so familiar?” He muttered, then shrugged. Deja vu worked in mysterious ways.

“David, dinner!” He heard his mom calling out for him. David crawled inside the window, and slid the window shut. He twisted the lock, locking it shut so no one’s could get in. He placed his backpack next to his bed and walked down the stairs, ready for dinner.

“So, how was your day at school?” Esther asked, serving everyone their soup.

“It was great, Mama!” Les said, shoveling soup into his mouth, “I met a boy named Tommy today, he’s really nice.”

“That’s great, dear. Sarah, David what about you?” Esther asked.

“It was fine,” David said, “I like my classes.”

“We made some friends,” Sarah offered.

“What are your friends names?” Mayer asked, wanting to get more out of his children that one sentence answers.

“Umm Sean, Blue, Stripes-“ David started.

“Hotshot, and Toothpaste,” Sarah finished.

“Those are interesting names,” Esther smiled slightly, sitting down at the table and beginning to eat.

“Yeah! Kinda like how Knuckles calls David Mouth!” Les chimed in.

“Yes, like that,” Mayer said.

“So how was your day at work, Papa?” David asked.

“It was fine. Not much different from the one in Santa Fe. I think it’ll turn out better though. A new city, a new opportunity,” Mayer said.

Dinner proceeded in useless chatter as the family continued to eat their soup. Once everyone finished, David and Sarah collected everyone’s plates and put the in the silver dishwasher. Once everyone finished cleaning, Sarah, David, and Les went upstairs under the guise of either going to sleep (in Les’ case) or being quiet and not bothering their brother (David and Sarah).

“I’m gonna FaceTime Katherine,” Sarah announced from her bed.

“Go ahead,” David monotoned, head stuck in his book. David saw Sarah press a couple of buttons, and a voice came out of her phone.

“Hey!” Katherine’s cheerful voice came booming out of the phone.

“Hi Kath,” Sarah smiled.

“How’s school?” The redhead asked, “are you moving in alright?”

“Yeah, we already made some friends,” Sarah said.

“Saz, we’ve talked to them once,” David said.

“They’re still our friends!” Sarah protested, “anyway, we made some friends, my science teacher’s a bitch, my English teacher is awesome, and I didn’t die on the first day of school!”

“That’s great! I knew you would have lived.” Katherine said with fake enthusiasm, clearly already having known he’d girlfriend wouldn’t get murdered during school hours.

“I think the house might be haunted,” Sarah said in faux seriousness.

“Oh, you do?” Katherine copied her expression, “pray tell, what exactly brought you to this conclusion?”

“A lamp shattered last night and it was the most frightening sight,” Sarah said.

“It was in the middle of the day,” David chimed in.

“Shut up,” Sarah hissed.

“Oh, is that David? Hi David!” Katherine greeted him.

“Hi, Katherine,” he said.

Sarah continued to talk to Katherine, with David occasionally looking up from his book for long enough to chime in a sentence or two.

Les rolled over, “I’m trying to sleep,” the nine-year-old announced, “so please shut up.”

Sarah laughed, “I have to go,” she said to the screen, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Katherine hung up, and the phone went dark.

“Okay, goodnight,” Sarah laid down in her bed and soon after joined Les in being asleep, leaving only David awake.

“Hey Davey,” a voice said. David turned around to find the source of the voice but was unsuccessful.

“That’s weird, twice in one day.” And with that David Jacobs laid down and went to sleep, preparing for the next day.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do I know you?” He asked the boy.
> 
> The boy tilted his head to the side, questioning. “‘Course ya do. Did ya hit your head on the walk back from Medda’s?”
> 
> “Who’s?”

“Heya, Dave,” Dream-David turned around to face a boy, no older than he was. The boy wore a red bandana and a cowboy hat, and a familiar grin. He’d been having dreams like this the past couple of days, made up scenarios that felt to him like memories. He could swear that he had truly experienced the things that happened in the dreams, but he knew he hadn’t.

“Do I know you?” He asked the boy.

The boy tilted his head to the side, questioning. “‘Course ya do. Did ya hit your head on the walk back from Medda’s?”

“Who’s?”

“Yeah, I think you’s hit ya head. I’m gonna bring you back home. Don’t want ya walkin’ in the streets if you don’t know your own name,” the boy said.

“I know my name,” David told him, “I just don’t know you.”

“It’s Jack, Dave. I should bring ya home now before your sister kills me.” The boy grabbed onto David’s hand and pulled him forward, walking through the cobblestone streets that seemed to be bustling with life, even in the dead of night.

Light shone in through the curtains, and David opened his eyes. He sat up in his bed and looked around, the memory of the dream already fading. Sarah stood at the end of his bed, waiting impatiently. “So you’ve woken up,” she noted.

“We’re you watching me sleep?” He asked.

She rolled her eyes and walked to the corner of the room, where Les’ bed sat. She gently shook the boy awake, and told him to start getting ready for school. Les groaned and rolled out of bed, as dramatic as possible. “Why do we even gave school?” The nine year old complained.

“So we can learn things,” David said, in the midst of getting ready.

“Why do we need to learn things?” The boy asked.

“To get a job,” Sarah explained, barely looking up from stuffing notebooks and paper into her backpack.

“Why do we need a job?” Les asked, getting up from the bed and moving over to the closet.

“So we can make money,” Sarah said, continuing to shove all of her possessions in a medium sized bag for school.

“Why do we need money?”

“So we don’t die,” David replied.

Les nodded, and moved to the other room to get changed. David and Sarah descended down the staircase and into the kitchen, where a box of cereal lay on the counter.

“Do you think Mama laid it out?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, probably,” David said, “Papa wouldn’t do it.” His sister nodded and poured herself a bowl or cereal before chucking the box at her brothers head, and going to get the milk from the fridge. David raised his arms up to deflect the box, and it bounced off his arms and onto the floor.

“Seriously?” He asked, annoyed.

Sarah chuckled and poured the milk into her bowl before handing it to David. “That better?” She asked sarcastically.

“Yep,” he nodded, “much better.”

Les bounded down the stairs and poured himself a bowl of cereal as well before sitting down at the table and wolfing it down. David looked up above his brother’s head, and noticed a faded figure with a cowboy hat and red bandana standing slightly next to him. He blinked, and the shape was gone. David shook his head, assuming it was a trick of the light. “Okay, let’s go,” he said once Les had finished eating.

The trio walked out the door of their house, “we’re leaving,” called Sarah, her faded brown backpack slung carelessly over her shoulder. They continued down the sidewalk in the direction of their school, occasionally stopping to pet a dog.

“Okay, have you ever seen a ghost?” Sarah asked, breaking David out of his mindless trance.

He blinked. “Uh, no,” he said, unconvincingly, still unsure about what he had seen that morning.

“That’s convincing,” Sarah rolled her eyes.

“I have!” Les jumped up, stretching his hand towards the sky.

“You have?” Sarah asked, quirking her head.

“Yeah! This morning while I was eating breakfast, I looked over and saw someone dressed like a cowboy next to me. Then I blinked, and there wasn’t anyone,” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” David asked.

“You were reading and Sarah was in her phone,” Les said, “besides, you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

“Well, I can’t speak for David, but I know I believe you, even if I didn’t see it myself,” Sarah said.

“I believe you too,” David told his brother, “I think I saw something as well next to you while you were eating as well.”

Les’ eyes widened, “really? So you believe in ghosts now?”

“That’s not what I said,” David defended himself, “I just said I saw a figure next to you. It could have just been a trick of the light.”

“Sure,” Les rolled his eyes, refusing to let himself think it could be anything but a ghost. Soon enough, they approached Les’ school, and Sarah and David were on their own.

“Did you really see something next to Les or did you just say that to make him feel better?” She asked.

“I did see something,” David told her, “I just don’t know what it was.”

“Well,” the girl looked at her brother, “describe it to me.”

“It looked like the faded figure of a boy, about my age,” David started, “He wore clothes that were probably from a child worker in the 19th century. He had a cowboy hat hung around his neck, and he was wearing a red bandana.”

“Wow,” Sarah looked impressed, “you got that much information off of a single glance?”

David shook his head. “I’ve been seeing the boy in my dreams as well.” He took a glance at his sister’s face, “not like that! I’ve just been having dreams where I’m with the boy and we’ll be taking about random things, it’s almost like reliving a memory I know never happened.”

Sarah let out a low whistle. “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.”

“You do?” David raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, when I first met Katherine I stated having dreams like the ones you’ve been describing. Like I’m reliving a memory. I still don’t know why though.”

“That’s weird,” he said, “have you told her?”

“She doesn’t know. And I plan to keep it that way,” Sarah said.

She did know. And on the other side of the county, she was telling Knuckles about her dreams of Sarah.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve updated four days in a row! Hopefully I can keep doing that until the book is finished.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I mean that they’re all drawings of you, idiot. I can’t believe we called you the smart one.”
> 
> “Y-you’re-“ David stuttered
> 
> “A ghost, yes. Any other stupid questions? Did you forget who I am too?” The ghost asked.

“What do you think you’re doing?” David asked, incased in one of his dreams again. He was holding a younger boy’s hand, who he’s sure was Les’. He looked exactly like him.

The boy in the red bandanna gave him a once over before looking over his shoulder. “Runnin’!” He said, seeing two boys chasing him down. The boy in the red bandana, or Jack, as David had learned in a past memory-like dream, took of running, pushing past David and Les.

Dream-David glared at the boy before turning to his brother. “Are you alright?” He asked, still confused about what had happened.

Dream-Les grinned, “that was so cool!” Yeah, definitely Les. The boy’s hand clutched a wooden pirate sword and over his head was an oversized hat that a 19th century newsboy would wear. “Do you think we’ll get to talk to him again?” Les asked, gesturing at Jack who had run off.

“I hope not,” David said, “we’re just here to sell newspapers and help the family, okay?” Les nodded, looking slightly disappointed at the fact that he wasn’t here solely to make friends.

David woke up to a rapping on his bed post. “What?” He asked, rubbing his eyes, not fully adjusted to the light.

“We’re going out today,” Sarah said simply.

“What?” David asked, confused.

“I said we’re going out today to explore the city,” Sarah stated, “it’s a Saturday and it’s nice out.”

“Yeah, but what if we didn’t?” David suggested.

Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed loudly, “you can do whatever you want,” she said, “but I’m gonna leave in twenty minutes, so you better decide what you’re doing by then.” She stomped out of the room and downstairs where David assumed she’d be waiting until exactly twenty minutes were up.

He rolled out of bed and stood up, stretching out as one does when you wake up. He silently walked over to the pile of his clothes lying in the corner of the room and picked out his clothes for the day. After getting changed, he picked up an old, blue book from the bookshelf and walked over to his bed.

“I’m leaving!” Came Sarah’s yell from downstairs.

“Good job!” David yelled back at her. He distantly heard the door slamming shut and turned his attention back to the book, not immediately recognizing it.

He flipped open the cover, and blew away the dust that littered the from page. In messy handwriting on the top of the page, David could make out: ‘Property of Jack Kelly. Don’t touch my shit.’ So definitely not his. Ignoring the warning, as it was from a hundred years ago, David opened to the first page to see a sketch that matched the ones he had seen under the floor board. The ones of him.

David flipped through the rest of the sketches. Some being elaborate landscapes or animals, others being people. This ‘Jack’ who had written these captured every possible detail he could. You could see every freckle on a drawing labeled ‘Snipeshooter’s face, exactly how ‘Katherine’s smile lit up the page, exactly how annoyed ‘Tumbler’ looked to be getting his picture drawn instead of doing something else, and exactly what David Jacobs looked like. David Jacobs, who lived one hundred years after these pictures were drawn.

David abruptly stood up from his spot on the bed, and walked to where he remembered the removable floorboard to be. He crouched to the ground, and felt around with hand until he found a crack. He lifted up the floorboard and carefully stacked the loose-lead drawings into a pile, grabbing them and bringing the back to the room.

He examined the drawing, comparing them to each other. “Well, it’s definitely the same artist,” David noted, “but why do the drawings look like me?”

“Maybe it’s ‘cause they are you.” A voice said. David looked up to see a faded boy in an unbuttoned pink shirt, arms crossed over his chest, unimpressively staring down at him.

“What do you mean?” David asked.

“I mean that they’re all drawings of you, idiot. I can’t believe we called you the smart one.”

“Y-you’re-“ David stuttered

“A ghost, yes. Any other stupid questions? Did you forget who I am too?” The ghost asked.

“Uh, yeah?” David grinned sheepishly.

The ghost raised an eyebrow, “name’s Skittery,” he stuck his hand out, which David tried to shake but just passed though. David yelped.

Skittery chuckled, “I probably shoulda mentioned that, we can’t touch things at the same time. On account of me being dead and you being alive.”

“Okay,” David nodded slightly, taking in the information. He paused. “Wait. How do you know me? And why are those drawings of me?”

“Cause Cowboy loves drawing you, he would neva stop talkin’ ‘bout you. And I knows you cause you used to be a newsie as well. You and your brother, Les.”

“B-but didn’t you live like, one hundred years ago?” David asked, “what were Les and I doing there?”

“You was reincarnation, of course. When ya died they determined that you was ready to move onto your next life. For most of us though. We has to wait until the ‘perfect moment’,” Skittery made quotation marks with his hands.

“So, the dreams I’ve been having,” David started as things began to make sense, “they’re real?”

“Well, I dunno about all of them,” Skittery said, “but some of them? Yeah. You just gotta figure out how to separate the true from the not true.”

David nodded, and heard the distant sound of a door opening. “David,” came Sarah’s voice from the entrance to the house, “you can’t stay cooped up inside all day!”

David looked at Skittery. “Well, that’s my cue to leave,” the ghost said, “have fun with your sister. Sarah’s nice. If you want to talk or ask a question, I’m always around.”Skittery disappeared into a puff of smoke. 

David blinked once, then twice. He couldn’t have imagined that could he? “I’m coming!” He yelled to his sister, and went to grab his coat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! Reviews keep me motivated to write, so please consider leaving one. <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So death isn't like 'oh I've finally found my peace' like they say it is?"
> 
> "No way, at least not for any of us here. We's still waitin' for our peace."
> 
> "Us?"

"So we sold newspapers with all of you?" David asked Skittery.

"Yeah, you and your brother Les had to help your family. That's really all I know about it. We wasn't that close."

David nodded, ignoring the grammar mistake that Skittery made. After weeks of talking to the ghost, he was uses to it by now. "When do you think I'll remember everything?" he asked for about the hundredth time.

"I dunno, Mouth," Skittery said, "I think it's all gonna come back in pieces. Kinda like when Elmer lost his memory, it just took a little while."

"Elmer lost his memory?" David asked.

"Yeah," Skittery nodded, kicking a non-existiant rock on the ground. "You wouldn't have remembered it, though, it was after you and Cowboy left. His folks threw him out of the house, like actually threw. The was about two stories up and the threw him outta the window. He hit his head and didn't remember nothing for a couple months."

"Wow," David breathed, "did he turn out okay?"

"Yeah," Skittery nodded, "he had a scar there but he turned out alright. 'Course I don't really know 'cause he hasn't shown up here yet."

"How long have you been here?" David asked.

"Since the day I died," Skittery let out a grim smile, "I was drafted in June 1915, got shot May 1916. All I remember is blackin' out and wakin' up here."

"So death isn't like 'oh I've finally found my peace' like they say it is?"

"No way, at least not for any of us here. We's still waitin' for our peace."

"Us?"

Skittery grinned, "I wondered when you were gonna ask that. Yeah, we's got Racer, Finch, Albert, Mush, Blink, Cowboy, Crutchie, and a bunch of others you wouldn't know."

"Wow," David blinked, "I don't know why I assumed it was just you here."

"I can see that," Skittery said, "we ain't exactly the loudest bunch, somehow. It seems some of us grew up." A loud bang echoed throughout the house, "shaddup!" Skittery shouted in the direction of the noise, annoyed.

David raised an eyebrow amused, "who's that?"

Skittery shrugged, "probably Race. He's made it his goal to annoy as many people as possible during death."

"Is he the one that-" David started.

"Yeah, I was," said a voice from behind David. He turned around to the sudden sound and smiled warmly.

"Hey, Race," he greeted.

"Hey, Davey," the boy said, "how's the land of the livin?"

"It's fine," he said, "how's being dead?"

"Annoying," Race said, "I've been trying to prove my existiance but people always assume it's gravity. And they still haven't gotten any ghost searchers through here so nothing's worked. Yet."

David laughed, "that bad, huh?"

Race nodded soelmnly, "stay alive while you still can. No matter how bad you think life is, death is much, much worse."

Skittery snorted, "that's one way to put it."

"Well what would you say, mister 'I fought in a war so I'm more important than you'?" Race asked.

"Don't get killed unless you gotta be killed," Skittery said.

"I think Race's made more sense," David said.

Skittery gasped, "betrayal," he cried, feigning hurt.

Race snorted, "the truth has come out, I am better than Skittery," he said dramatically.

"No, you just made a little more sense there. Not much though," Skittery said.

"I made so much more sense!" Protested Race.

David laughed quietly, "no, you didn't."

Race frowned, and with a poof, he disappeared into the air.

"So dramatic," Skittery rolled his eyes.

A door slamming open and the sound of someone stomping in the house stopped any attempt at talking. Skittery silently waved, and disappeared into the house. "David," Sarah yelled from downstairs, "I'm home."

"Okay," David yelled back, standing up from his bed to go greet his sister. "How was the mall?" He asked.

Sarah rolled her eyes, "why did I go again? I barely got anything done."

"So not fun?" David asked.

"No, not at all." Sarah looked down at her phone, "shit!" she said, "I still have an essay due tommorrow."

David's eyes widened, remembering his own due assignments. "I still have a history project."

The twins raced upstairs to their shared room, and started their projects. Sarah on her english essay, and David on his history presentation. He typed on the screen, putting research together to create the slideshow.

"Have you ever just, wanted to drop out of school and get a job?" Sarah asked the silence.

"Sometimes," David replied, "but we're lucky to be in school. Plenty of kids never even got to go."

"Yeah," Sarah nodded. She turned her attention back towards her english essay, and the two let the sound of computer keyboard clicking entrance them.

David closed his computer, having submitted his presentation. He sighed in relief, "now I just have to wait for tommorrow to fail presenting it."

Sarah let out a small chuckle, barely looking up from her book she had picked up. "same."

"You make no sense."

"Neither do you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry it took so long to update, I've been really busy and didn't have a ton of motivation. I'm going to try to go back to updating every day though.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Anyway,” Sarah said trying to change the subject, “have you seen any ghosts?”
> 
> David’s eyes widened quickly as an expression of shock settled onto his face before quickly melting away. “No,” he said, “why would I?”
> 
> “Because this place is haunted,” Sarah laughed.

A rapid knocking on the window woke Davey from his slumber. He opened an eye, to see his friend- no, not his friend.  
He stood up, careful not to wake Sarah or Les, and went to the window. “What do you want?” He asked, sliding the window up slightly.

“I want to explain,” Jack said softly.

“Explain what?” Davey asked harshly, but quiet enough to not wake his siblings, “that you don’t care about the strike? That you’d betray us all for some money? Are you here to say goodbye before you fuck off to Santa Fe?”

“No, I just- can you come outside?” Jack asked, “I don’t want your siblings to wake up. Davey hesitantly climbed out of the windowsill and onto the fire escape. He turned to face Jack.

“Explain. Now,” he said.

“I didn’t do it for the money,” Jack said, “I did it for you.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Davey asked.

“Pulitzer threatened the newsies, said he’d send ‘em all to the refuge. He threatened you and Les by name, I can’t let you get sent there, it would break you.”

“You could have just told me that,” Davey said, “we could have figured something out. Do you know how long it took to convince Brooklyn that just because you gave up doesn’t mean we all do?”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want you and Les to have to go to-“ Jack was cut off by Davey leaning forward and kissing him, then immediately pulling away.

“I’m so so sorry,” Davey said, clearly panicking. Jack leaned forward and kissed him again.

Davey pulled away, “I kind of- like you. And I’m really sorry and-“

Jack cut him off, “I like you too.”

Light shone through the cracks in the window blinds as David peeled his eyes open. He looked over at Sarah’s sleeping form and glanced at his alarm clock. 5:12 am. He didn’t have to wake up anytime soon. David picked his book up off the nightstand and opened it to the bookmark. He began to read, using the early morning light to see.

“David,” he looked over to see Sarah looking at him from where she lay down.

“What?” He asked quietly, as to not wake Les.

“I had the weirdest dream,” Sarah said.

“Okay.”

Sarah nodded her head toward the fire escape and stood up, making her way to the exit. David put down his book, slightly annoyed, and followed his sister.

“What was the dream about?” He asked once they were outside.

“So Katherine and I-“ Sarah started.

“Nope. I don’t need to hear whatever dreams you have about your girlfriend.”

“Shut up,” she shoved him lightly, “it wasn’t like that and you know it. Anyway, I had a dream that we were talking like normal, but it seemed that it didn’t happen anytime soon to now. Like I don’t remember ever having the conversation with her, but it felt so familiar.”

“Wow,” David said, “ever heard of a dream?”

“And we were wearing clothes that seemed to be from a couple centuries ago. I wore a brown dress that was obviously worn a lot, and she wore a pink dress that obviously cost a lot of money.”

“No matter what the situation is,” David said, “Katherine is always rich.”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “anyway, it was just really weird. And it seemed so real.”

David sighed, “yeah,” he said, “I’ve been having dreams like that too.”

Sarah looked at him, surprised, “really?”

“Yeah,” David nodded, “but it’s not anyone we know now. I don’t think I’ve ever met him. But I know that I have. It’s just confusing.”

“That,” Sarah started, “is just weird.”

“It makes no sense,” David said.

“Anyway,” Sarah said trying to change the subject, “have you seen any ghosts?”

David’s eyes widened quickly as an expression of shock settled onto his face before quickly melting away. “No,” he said, “why would I?”

“Because this place is haunted,” Sarah laughed.

“Yeah, about as haunted as the Sallie House,” David said.

“That house has a demon in it and you know it!” Sarah protested.

“Sure it does,” David rolled his eyes.

“Just because you didn’t see anything doesn’t mean there wasn’t evidence!”

“The only ‘evidence’ that was there,” David made quotation marks with his fingers, “was the pentagram on the floor of the basement. Which proves nothing.”

“We just didn’t have the proper equipment,” Sarah said.

“We’re not going to but ghost hunting equipment to go to one haunted house,” David said.

“I never said we would! I’m just saying we don’t have the correct stuff!”

“Okay, whatever,” David said.

“All that fancy stuff doesn’t actually work,” a quiet voice said.

“Did you hear that?” David asked.

“Hear what?” 

“Never mind,” he said.

“Okay. Well, I’m going back inside,” Sarah climbed back through the window and into the room, leaving David alone with the voice.

“Who’s there?” David asked.

“Me,” the voice replied.

“Okay,” David said, “that’s not funny.”

David swore he could feel the eye-roll that the voice projected. “Sure it is,” it said.

“No, it’s not.”

“Well, if you don’t like it, how ‘bout you try to figure out who I is?” The voice asked.

“Okay,” David said hesitantly.

“You get 3 questions including a guess. I’ll answer yes or no. Go.”

“Were you a newsie?” David asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you participate in the newsboy strike of 1899?”

“Yes.”

“Uhhhhh did you live in the lodging house?” David asked, not sure who it was.

“Yes. And there’s the end of your questions, better luck next time.”

“Next time?” David asked, “so I’ll get to keep guessing later?”

“Yeah. Not now though, I’m busy,” the voice said.

“Okay,” David said, “have fun.”

Not hearing a reply David looked around, half expecting the voice to appear as a person in front of him like Skittery or Race. “Huh, no one,” he said to himself. David climbed back in the window and made his way over to his bed. He grabbed his book off of his nightstand and sat on his bed, flipping to the correct page. He tried to focus on reading, but the ideas of who the voice could be plagued his mind.

“Whatever,” David said to himself, “I’ll figure it out when I guess it correctly. The teen continued to read, unaware of the presence watching him, waiting.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The strike leaders names were Jack Kelly and...... you’ll never guess who else.”
> 
> David raised an eyebrow, bored, “Sarah?”
> 
> “No. David Jacobs.”
> 
> David’s face turned to one of false confusion. “What?” He asked.

“Is your favorite color red?” David asked the voice.

“No.”

“Yellow?” He asked again.

“No,” the voice repeated.

“Purple?”

“No.”

“Orange?”

“No.”

“What other colors are there?” David asked, frustrated.

“You’re missing a key color, I don’t see how you’ve missed it,” it said.

“I did?” David asked.

“Yeah, I dunno how you think that you’d supposed to guess who I is with knowing my favorite color. You don’t even know if you knew me.”

“Well did I know you?” David asked.

“Yeah,” the voice asked, close to laughter.

“Why would you bring it up then?”

He heard faint laughter coming from the voice, “why not?”

David rolled his eyes, only slightly annoyed. “Is it blue?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s blue.”

“I skipped blue?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. You skipped the most beautiful color in the whole world,” the voice laughed.

“Blue is not the best color,” David protested, “it’s red.”

“No. No way. Red is in now way the best color. It’s not even close to the top. It’s like, just above brown.”

“Brown is a great color too.”

“No, no it’s not. God, Dave who told ya what colors were good and not?”

“Myself.”

The voice laughed, “great color choice,” it said sarcastically.

“Hey, David what did you get on the test?” Sarah asked from the doorway.

David turned around and faced his sister. He could feel the presence of the voice fading away. “Uh, I got at 98, why?”

“I got a 45.”

“That sucks.”

“But I don’t know what I did wrong,” Sarah explained.

“Come here,” David waved Sarah over to him, “I’ll help.” Sarah sat down on David’s bed next to him and listened as he explained the math problem.

“I fucking hate geometry,” Sarah said.

“Doesn’t everyone?” David smirked.

“Believe it or not, the math teachers actually like some of it,” Sarah said.

“I have no clue how thats possible,” said David, “I love school, but I hate geometry more than life itself.”

Sarah chuckled, “at least you don’t have Mr. Snyder. It’s like he enjoys torturing us.”

David felt a familiar bolt of energy go through him, like one he felt when someone mentioned the newsies or certain books. But much darker and sinister.

“At least you don’t have Mr. Wiesel for English,” said David, “he can grade however he wants. No one has above a B in that class. And we’re all doing A-level work.”

“Mr. Denton’s a great English teacher,” Sarah smiled softly, “he literally doesn’t care what we do as long as we turn in work on time.”

“Ms. Hannah’s girlfriend stopped by during science class today,” David told his sister, “she was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. And she didn’t give us homework because of it.”

“Mr. Rosevelt, uh, what has he done? He literally hasn’t done anything. He’s about three hundred years old and just drones on all class. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually Rosevelt,” Sarah laughed.

“That would be interesting. History teacher turns out to be the history he was teaching,” David said.

Sarah snorted. “We’re actually learning about Rosevelt in a sense, now.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, the newsboy strike of 1899. Did you know that Rosevelt eventually had to come in and help sort some stuff out. He shut down this jail for kids too.”

“There were jails for kids?” David asked, slightly scared at what the answer would be.

Sarah nodded, “yeah. The one he shut down, The Refuge brought in kids from all over Manhattan. Basically, if you were a kid and you didn’t have parents, you probably ended up there at least once.”

“Wow,” David said.

“He bring you in for doing nothing and then log it in as thievery or trespassing,” Sarah continued, “the shortest sentences were about three months. And that was when you ‘disrespected’ an adult.”

“Disrespecting an adult could get you in jail?” David asked.

She nodded, “so could glaring at an adult. Even if you were a perfect kid, if you lived on the streets, he’d find a way to send you to jail.”

“Why?”

“Money. The more kids, the more funding. The more funding, the more money he got for himself,” Sarah said.

“You seem to know an awful lot about this,” David observed.

“I did some extra research. Don’t look at me like that!” Sarah said, noticing her brother’s gaze, “it’s interesting. I just want to know what kids our age would have gone through.”

“Statistically speaking,” David started, “how many of them went to school?”

Sarah shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“You know the conditions of an old juvenile jail but don’t know the percentage of kids that went to school then?” David asked.

Sarah nodded, “I don’t care about that part.”

“That’s fair,” David said, “so, the newsies. What did you learn about them?”

Sarah grinned, “they started striking after Pulitzer raised the price of newspapers from ten cents per fifty papers to ten cents for sixty. The strike leaders names were Jack Kelly and...... you’ll never guess who else.”

David raised an eyebrow, bored, “Sarah?”

“No. David Jacobs.”

David’s face turned to one of false confusion. “What?” He asked.

“Yeah, he shares the same name as you. That’s some weird coincidence. Anyway, they did some strike stuff, fought a couple people, held a rally, got betrayed by one of the leaders. It wasn’t David, don’t worry. And then they printed a bunch of propaganda newspapers for all the kids in the city, had a city-wide child labor strike, and won.”

“Wow,” David blinked. They got the price back to normal?”

“No,” Sarah quickly shook her head, “they got it only raised by five cents instead of ten. But the newspaper company agreed to buy back what the newsboys couldn’t sell.”

“That’s a good deal,” said David, “sad that they had to work though.”

“Yeah, makes you fell lucky we live here now, doesn’t it?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine being a newsboy and yelling about random headlines all day long.” David heard a muffled laugh behind him, presumably Race or Skittery.

“That sounded sarcastic,” Sarah raised an eyebrow.

“What? No it didn’t,” David said.

“Yeah, it did,” Sarah said.

“Whatever, do you still need help with math?” David asked.

Sarah shook her head, “I’m good, bye!” The girl ran out of the room and sprinted down the stairs, out of sight.

“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine being a newsboy and yelling random headlines all day long,” Race mimicked, popping out of the shadows.

“What was I supposed to say?” David looked at Race accusingly, “I can’t just tell her that in a past life I was one of the leaders of a goddamn strike we have to learn about in school!”

“Ya know,” Race started, “you used to be really strict about swearing. It’s less annoying now.”

“Thank you?”

“Yep,” Race nodded, “anyway, I have ghost things to do. Just popped by to make fun of you,” the ghost disappeared from existence, no evidence of him to be found.

David rolled his eyes and turned back towards his book that he’d been reading since he got there. It was from the early 20th century, and he knew there was something familiar about it. He just couldn’t tell what.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What's Santa Fe got that New York ain't?" Davey asked, frowning, "tarantulas?"
> 
> "Or better yet," Katherine stepped onto the other side of Jack on the cobblestone streets of New York City, "what's New York got that Santa Fe ain't?"
> 
> "New York's got us, and we're family," Crutchie said from next to Jack, looking at the older boy, his brother, pleading him to stay.
> 
> Jack turned to Davey, "I ain't goin' to Santa Fe," he told the three, "I got all I need right here."

"What's Santa Fe got that New York ain't?" Davey asked, frowning, "tarantulas?"

"Or better yet," Katherine stepped onto the other side of Jack on the cobblestone streets of New York City, "what's New York got that Santa Fe ain't?"

"New York's got us, and we're family," Crutchie said from next to Jack, looking at the older boy, his brother, pleading him to stay.

Jack turned to Davey, "I ain't goin' to Santa Fe," he told the three, "I got all I need right here."

Davey smiled at Jack. As the clock struck nine o'clock, Katherine stepped away, bidding the newsies goodbye and walked towards The Sun building. Her arms swung at her side and she held a carefree smile, relieved this was all over, and hoping for a better future. She glanced over at a girl standing next to Les, and her world stopped. The brunette held eye contact with her, before walking over to greet her.

"Sarah Jacobs," the girl stuck her hand out upon reaching Katherine, smiling.

"Uh, Katheine Pul- Plumbler," she stuttered, "are you David and Les' sister?"

"Yes, you're the reporter, right? I loved your article. And thanks for helping my brothers."

"Yes, uh, no problem! They're great."

Sarah looked around, "do you want me to walk you to work? It doesn't seem like your father will."

Katherine winced slightly, of course she knew. How would she not? She's David's sister. "Yes, that'd be wonderful."

"Okay!" She looked over at Les and waved, signaling that she was leaving. Les nodded in response and continued his conversation with Tumbler, waving his hands around frantically. Sarah looped arms with Katherine, grinning, "let's go!"

Katherine laughed, and the two girls began walking to her office building. "So tell me about yourself," Katherine said, "all I really know is that you're David and Les's sister."

Sarah smiled and began talking as the two walked, "I work at a factory a couple of blocks over. We got the day off today, though," she added at Katherine's worried glance, "I like gardening, I help grow most of our food."

Katherine grinned in amazement, "I've always wanted to try gardening," she said, "it seems so wonderful!"

Sarah laughed, "it is! I can teach you sometime."

"That'd be amazing," Katherine said. The two girls continued walking towards the offices of The Sun, talking about anything that crossed their minds. This slowly became a regular occurrence for the two. Sarah, who started work an hour after Katherine, would walk to Katherine's apartment in Lower Manhattan, and walk the girl to work.

"Sarah!" Katherine called, seeing the girl in front of the apartment building, "how are you?"

Sarah grinned, seeing her friend, "great! How was your day yesterday?"

Katherine groaned, rolling her eyes, and looped her arm with Sarah's, "you know how I got the story about the missing kid from Brooklyn, right?" Sarah nodded in confirmation. "Well, apparently due to being a girl, I'm apparently going to get sick from looking into the case, so they assigned it to a man!"

Sarah groaned with sympathy, "that's horrible. You're the best reporter in the entire city, if they can't see that, then they're all idiots."

Katherine laughed slightly, lightly smacking her shoulder, "you shouldn't say that about one of the most powerful men in New York," she told her jokingly.

Sarah rolled her eyes, laughing, "like he'd care about some factory girl who couldn't do anything to him except spread some false gossip."

"Gossip can do a lot," Katherine reminded her.

"Yes," Sarah nodded softly, "but it isn't like anyone would believe me. Everything I know comes straight from you, newspapers, and factory gossip."

"How is the factory gossip?" Katherine asked with a slight smirk.

"You know how Ms. Davis has been missing for the past few days?" Sarah asked.

Katherine nodded, "what'd she do this time?" Ms. Davis had been known to disappear for long periods of time, only showing up to prove that she wasn't dead.

"Apparently she got eloped," Sarah laughed, "to some man from Queens. Apparently they're both on their way to France as we speak."

"There is no way that happened," Katherine wheezed.

"We'll see," Sarah said, "it certainly wouldn't be the craziest thing she's done."

"But running off to France without alerting anyone? I can't see her doing that." The two laughed about more gossip the two had heard across the streets of New York as they walked to The Sun's building.

Sarah Jacbos sat upright in her bed, shocked by the dream. It had been the third of the kind she'd had that week, and she was starting to get concerned. "This is so weird," she muttered to herself. Why was she having dreams about her and her girlfriend in the nineteenth century? There was absolutely no reason for it. She glanced over at David, passed out on his own bed, and quickly decided not to wake him. He hadn't been getting enough sleep as it was, he didn't need Sarah bothering him with her own problems.

She stood up and got ready to leave. She grabbed her backpack off the ground, and made her way downstairs. She quietly slipped out of the house, leaving a note for their parents. Sarah walked towards the park, dragging her feet, and thinking about her dream. There was no way that had actually happened, part of her voice reasoned. But, at the same time, what if it did? The girl always felt like she was missing something, and then Katherine appeared. As cheesy as that might sound, she knew it was true. It had always seemed so weird to her, but having the possibility of knowing each other in a past life made it completely possible to her.

Sarah stepped onto the road, not looking at where she was going, and a car flew right past her face. She leapt back, alarmed. Once the pedestrian crossing light turned on, Sarah ran across the street, her long brown hair flew behind her. As Sarah neared the entrance of the park, she slowed down her pace into a walk. She walked over to a bench under a tree, and sat down, pulling out her laptop, and began to write, telling the story of a group of boys who never had their stories told, a group of boys who's only recognition was within a couple of newspaper articles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You thought this was going to be another Davey chapter? Think again.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I've decided to write a book," Sarah said.
> 
> Katherine raised an eyebrow, "you have?"
> 
> "Yeah," Sarah nodded, "I've been having these weird dreams about the nineteenth century. I did more research, and they seem to be about the newsboy strike of 1899. So I'm gonna write a book about it."
> 
> Katherine gasped softly, "you've been having those dreams too?"

"So what you're saying," David waved his hand around the air in a circular motion, "is that because of some weird dream, you've decided to write a book about some kids that ran a strike."

Sarah had finally told her brother about her plan to write a book, hoping he could help. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she nodded.

David grinned, "yeah, I'll help."

Sarah's eyes widened in surprise, "you will?"

He laughed, "don't act so surprised. I think we should get Katherine's help too."

Sarah nodded in agreement, "yeah, that'd be a good idea." The girl picked up her phone and dialed Katheine's number.

"Hello?" Could be heard from the other side of the phone.

"Hey, Kath," Sarah said, smiling.

"Hey, Sar. What do you need?"

Sarah gasped in fake offense, "couldn't I just be calling to say I love you?"

"David texted me like, thirty seconds before you called saying you two need help," she deadpanned.

"Can you FaceTime?" Sarah asked. The camera was quickly switched to FaceTime and Katherine appeared in view, sitting on her bed.

"Okay, what's up?" She asked.

"I've decided to write a book," Sarah said.

Katherine raised an eyebrow, "you have?"

"Yeah," Sarah nodded, "I've been having these weird dreams about the nineteenth century. I did more research, and they seem to be about the newsboy strike of 1899. So I'm gonna write a book about it."

Katherine gasped softly, "you've been having those dreams too? I thought I was just going crazy."

"I've been having them too," David added from his spot on the bed.

"That- that's weird," Katherine said, "anyways, I have started researching it, because of my dreams. So, we already have a head start."

"I have too," Sarah said, "David?"

"I've been talking to the ghosts of the newsboys that lived here," David deadpanned.

Katherine and Sarah laughed, "so you haven't done anything?" Katherine asked.

David shook his head, "no, not really."

"Okay then, let's get started." The three launched into their research chiming in things like, "did you know the leader of the strike wanted to be a cowboy?" and "the strike cause a children's jail to get shut down."

After about an hour of research, David stood up. "I'll be back," he told the two. David stood up and headed down the stairs to get water as a figure appeared next to him.

"Did you know the leader of the strike wanted to be a cowboy?" Race asked, laughing.

"Yeehaw," the voice David had been talking to said, bored.

"Wait," David turned to the source of the voice, "you were the leader of the strike?"

"I mean, there were technically two leaders," the voice said.

David scrunched his eyebrows, "Then which one are you?"

"The one that you'd see in the papes more," the voice said, "the other one was more of the brains."

"You're Jack, Jack Kelly, right?"

A figure appeared next to him and nodded, "yeah, I is. Nice to meet ya Davey."

David's eyes widened, "okay, this is going to sound really weird," he looked at Jack and Race before continuing, "but I've been having these dreams. And they've seemed like memories. You've been in most of them," he pointed at Jack.

"But you still don't remember everything?" Jack asked cautiously.

David shook his head, "you're saying they're real memories?"

Race looked at him, "describe one to us. We'll tell you if it's real."

"Uh, it was a couple hours after a- rally? Yeah, a rally. And Jack betrayed the strike for some money," Jack winced at his words, "and then Jack knocked on the window and explained. Then he uh," David stole a glace at Jack before continuing, "he explained that Katherine had a plan."

Jack nodded, "that seems right."

David's eyes widened, "wait, Katherine! She was alive then too?"

Race nodded, "she was the reporter for the strike."

"Were any other people that I know in the strike?" David asked, "or is it just them?"

"I don't know," Jack shrugged, "who do you know?"

"Knuck- Nadia Kowalski," he said.

"I know there was someone in Brooklyn names Knuckles Kowalski," Race said.

David nodded, barely surprised anymore. "Hotshot?"

"Brooklyn's second in command," Jack said.

"Sean Conlon?"

Jack snorted, "his real name's Sean?"

Race rolled his eyes, "yeah, Spot was leader of Brooklyn."

"And that's about all my friends," David said.

"Wow," Jack raised an eyebrow, "I feel like I should be surprised. But I'm really not."

"David," Sarah called, "why are you taking so long?"

"I'll be up in a minute," he called back. "Anyway," David turned to Jack as he walked down the stairs, "that was rude."

"Sorry," Jack apologized, laughing.

David made his way downstairs and grabbed a cup. He filled it up with water in the sink, and sat down at the chair. "I'll just do my research down here," he said, "it's not like Sarah and Katherine would care."

"So can you talk?" Jack asked, "being dead gets boring."

"Yeah, I can talk."

Jack sat down at the chair next to him, "so how's the land of the living? Do kids still have to work?"

David shook his head, "it's illegal now. Kids legally have to go to school until they're eighteen. Then they can do whatever they want."

Jack's eyes widened in surprise, "so no more newsies?"

David shook his head, "everything's online now. You know what that means, right?"

Jack nodded his head, "yeah, Spot showed us when he came here on a dare a couple months ago."

"So he did see something?" David asked.

"Oh, obviously. There would be no way Race would stay away from him. He already knew this place was haunted anyway, he wanted to come to see if he could see Race."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised he hasn't come back in a while. Race has missed him."

"I'll pass the message on," David said.

Jack nodded, "how's Santa Fe now? Does it still exist?"

David nodded, "I lived there actually, before moving here."

Jack's eyes widened and he leaned forward, interested, "is it really as great as I thought it would be?"

"I mean, I used to live there, so I'm biased. But, yeah, it was great."

Jack shook his head, chuckling "I can't believe you, Sarah, Les, and Katherine all ended up there."

David let out a short laugh, "yeah, it's pretty weird."

"David!" Sarah's voice came from upstairs, "if you don't come up within the next minute I'm gonna assume another ghost has joined these halls."

"That sounds weirdly ominous," David said, "anyway, I have to go. Talk to you later."

"Yeah, Dave, talk to you later."


End file.
